Appetite suppression through delayed fat digestion.

High-fat diets are often associated with greater caloric intake and weight gain. Since satiety during fat intake is induced by fat in the intestine we investigated the efficiency of a lipid compound that retards fat digestion to regulate fat intake. We found this compound to reduce high-fat food intake, body weight and blood lipids in Sprague-Dawley rats, without causing steatorrhea.

In vitro investigation of the possible influence of inorganic mercury and hydrogen peroxide on the formation of peroxides in a polyunsaturated fatty acid system (linoleic acid).

In vitro there was no indication that either inorganic mercury (vapor or metallic) or hydrogen peroxide catalyzed a rapid formation of peroxides in a polyunsaturated fatty acid as linoleic acid. When mercury and hydrogen peroxide were combined in a solution of linoleic acid, a notable amount of peroxide was registered by thin layer chromatography. As hydrogen peroxide is an inevitable intermediate product of oxygen metabolism and also a component of the immunologic defense system, the interaction between mercury and hydrogen peroxide must be considered an important fact in knowledge of the mechanisms of mercury toxicity.

Deconjugation of bile salts: does it occur outside the contents of the intestinal tract in the rat?

Several different methods have been applied to measure the extent of bile salt deconjugation (deamidation), if any, outside the gastro-intestinal tract of the rat. A breath test has been applied to the rat using peroral or intravenous administration of cholyl-glycine-1-14C. Results for normal rats have been compared with rats with a continuous recirculation of bile to a tail vein.

Effects of feeding ursocholic acid to germfree rats.

Germfree rats were fed 24-14C-ursocholic acid (UC) mixed into the diets for 10 days. The bile was then drained by cannulation for 6 hours to collect the bile salt pool. No biotransformation of the labelled UC occurred and it constituted approximately equal to 75% of an enlarged bile salt pool.

Metabolism of cholate, 7 beta-hydroxy- and 12 beta-hydroxy-isocholates in the rat.

The three epimeric trihydroxy bile salts cholate (C), 7 beta-hydroxy-(7 beta) and 12 beta-hydroxy-(12 beta) isocholate were fed to rats by intubation or in the diet. All three bile salts were well absorbed 7 beta greater than C greater than 12 beta and underwent heavy biotransformations in the enterohepatic circulation 12 beta greater than 7 beta C. The result is a low concentration of unchanged administered bile salt in the bile salt pools, 12 beta less than 7 beta less than C, the percentage figures being 3, 20 and 35%, respectively, after 7 days feeding.